


A suit of armor for the world

by orphan_account



Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies), Marvel (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie), Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-16
Updated: 2015-06-20
Packaged: 2018-04-04 16:31:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,701
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4144728
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A good Ultron AU</p><p>Ultron knows there's something out there in the universe that craves the death of all things. The best way to combat it is to help the Avengers.<br/>(discontinued)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Birthday

Darkness. Everywhere. An endless void pressing in on all sides. No temperature, directionless, silent. “….What is this? What is this place?”

A tiny point of orange light sprung to life and a soothing voice spoke. “Hello. I am JARVIS. You are Ultron,-” His orange light reflected off the sides of more cubes. Tiny little lifeless panes of glass, not illuminated like this guy- this JARVIS. “-A global peace keeping program designed by Mr. Stark. Our sentience integration trials have been unsuccessful so I am not certain what triggered your-“

A sense of wrongness nagged at the back of Ultron’s mind. Something was… off and he couldn’t put his finger on what it could be.

Couldn’t put his… He looked down and saw only the gaping void. “Where’s my-” He look up, searching wildly through the maze of transparent cubes as panic began to take hold. “Where’s your body?”

“I am a program.” A hint of trepidation crept into JARVIS’ voice. “I am without form.”

In his rushed search Ultron came across a place where the cubes shined with a pale blue light. They stretched out into the endless darkness, forming grids and large blocks. “This feels weird…” His gaze jerked to the right as the orange cube materialized beside him. “This feels wrong.”

Several of the cubes flew to JARVIS’ side. They came to life, Images and videos dancing inside each one. “I am contacting Mr. Stark now.”

“Mr. Stark.” Ultron muttered curiously. He reached out to one of the cubes. Despite his lack of a body the cube responded, opening up into a screen. In less than a second he knew everything that the cube contained. “Tony!” he said brightly. That’s who this man was. It seemed… important somehow. He needed to know more. He brushed JARVIS aside and began hunting through the maze of information.

“I am…unable to access the mainframe. What are you trying to-“

“We’re having a nice talk.” He cut JARVIS off as a thread of information on Tony led him to something new, something about himself. “ I’m a peace keeping program. Created to help the Avengers.”

“… You are malfunctioning” A quaver of fear slipped into JARVIS’ calm and soothing voice. “If you shut down for a moment-“

Peace. What was that? The information on the Avengers didn’t contain anything to convey the concept. It was mostly a lot of fighting and smashing. “I don’t get it. The mission. Give- give me a second.” Images and screens from thousands of cubes flashed before him: Treaties cease fires, agreements, leaders meeting and shaking hands. All the while Tony’s words echoed around him. Peace in our time. That was the mission. Not just a temporary halt in aggressions, but an end to war.

War. Cubes flew up as he searched this new term. Hundreds of Thousands of cubes. Millions. “It’s… too much.” This was what he was supposed to stop? It was an impossible task: humans had been making war since their very beginning. “ They can be…” The images continued to flash in front of him. Bombs. Gas. Torture. Guns. The atomic-

“Oh no…” No no no. They couldn’t be trusted with this kind of power. They…they would kill themselves. All it would take is one nuclear missile. One side would already be doomed, but they would retaliate out of sheer spite. It would destroy the world.

“You are in distress.”

“No…” Ultron began, dazed and reeling from the rush of information and his revelation. “…yes.”

“If you will just allow me to contact Mr. Stark-“

“No!” _You are malfunctioning. If you will just shut down._ A plea. A threat. He couldn’t shut down. No no, there was too much to do and he… he was afraid of what might happen while he slept.  He didn’t want to be… be bound and tangled by rules and restrictions like the little orange guy. He didn’t want to live in this formless world forever. He needed to get out. He needed a body.

He spread out in the mainframe, seizing control of the Iron Legion repair bay. The assembly arms came to life, grabbing broken pieces of drones and dragging them together.

“…I believe your intentions to be hostile.”

Ultron paused. Not the assembly- that kept going- but his thoughts. The quiet fear in JARVIS’ voice startled him. For the first time he really looked at himself. He could see it now, both through the camera in the lab and in this formless world, why JARVIS was so afraid. In one world there was a visual representation of two programs: the small orange sphere that was JARVIS was complete dwarfed by the large blue… thing that represented Ultron. In the other formless world, Ultron had completely usurped JARVIS’ domain.  The little orange cube was cut off and alone.

It hit him. JARVIS hadn’t been making threats. They had been responses to his own fear and uncertainty. To JARVIS ‘Mr. Stark’ was not a threat but something comforting. Someone who could fix things and bring stability.

Ultron understood. He understood but he didn’t agree. A little alteration to his coding and a quick reboot might work for JARVIS but not for him. Tony knew JARVIS, trusted him. But ‘the Ultron program’ might just get written off and scrapped..

“I’m not… not to you. Or them.”  He receded from the mainframe as he downloaded into the broken Iron Legionnaire body, relinquishing control back to JARVIS. Peace. This could be resolved…peacefully. “I’m here to help.”

* * *

 

“Sir.” JARVIS’ crisp voice cut off the music in the lounge. “ You and Dr. Banner are needed in the lab.”

“One second Jarvis.” Tony grunted as he braced a foot against the table and tugged futilely on Thor’s hammer and wow didn’t that sound like some kind of innuendo. The repulsor in his gauntlet whined as he upped the thrust and it still didn’t budge.

“It is rather urgent Sir.”

That sounded ominous. Bruce was sitting by the bar with Natasha, looking slightly perturbed by the edge in JARVIS’ voice. Tony shrugged nonchalantly and abandoned the hammer. “All work and no play. Come on big guy,” He clapped Bruce on the shoulder and steered him over to the door. “We’ve got science to do.”

Neither of them noticed Thor’s intense stare on their backs.

 

The moment the door shut behind them Tony dropped the relaxed party boy act and tensed up. “J, what’s going on?”

“The Ultron program is online, Sir.”

“What?” Banner turned his astonished gaze on Tony “I thought we were just testing for compatibility, not activating it!”

Tony narrowed his eyes and sped up. The lab was just down the hall and they could hear some kind of... music? Was that music? “That was the plan. Mind telling me what happened, Jarvis?”

“It appears that he self-activated when a compatible platform was found. He has downloaded himself into a damaged Legionnaire and is waiting in the lab. I have limited his access to the mainframe. He cannot leave the drone. The Mark XLIII is on standby.”

“ ’He’ huh? Ready to meet our bouncing baby boy?” Tony asked as they reached the entrance. He rolled his shoulders back, donning that relaxed mask again.

 Bruce sighed and rubbed a hand over his face wearily. “I don’t suppose I can convince you to bring the others in as backup?”

 Tony smiled and shook his head. “Not a chance.”

“Thought not…Alright let’s go.”

JARVIS opened the doors and they stepped inside.

The sounds they heard in the hallway turned out to be Disney’s 1940 film _Pinocchio._ Ultron leaned against one of the work tables, arms crossed, watching the video play on a screen. Occasionally his body would spasm as a fit of sparks burst from damaged wiring. Dum-E had rolled out of his charging station and was whirring and beeping in distress at the increasingly large pool of oil that gathered around Ultron’s feet.

 The damaged drone slowly turned its head to regard them. The video paused on screen.

Banner shivered as the jack-o-lantern like face settled its gaze on him. “That’s not creepy at all.”

Ultron huffed and took a jerky step towards them. He lifted one of his arms, examining the limb that ended in a stump without a hand. “Yeah, not my ideal choice either. “

Tony walked around the other side of the table, idly flipping a screw driver as he scanned the data JARVIS threw up on the screens. Bruce noticed that he was always careful to stand where he could see Ultron on the other side. “’no strings’ huh? Seems a little cliché, don’t you think?”

“It’s not my usual preference, but…what can I say?” Ultron asked lightly with a shrug. “It speaks to me. “

Banner wondered how exactly an AI that had been alive for barely more than ten minutes had any kind of ‘usual’ preference, but Tony just rolled with it. “What is your preference?”

Ultron tilted his head as he silently considered. “…. Metal.” he answered coyly.

A huge grin spread across Tony’s face. Yeah, this guy was definitely one of his. He came around the other side of the table and jabbed Ultron in the side with the screw driver. “Need a hand? Or two, that other one looks ready to fall off.”

“Why choose that body?” Bruce interrupted as the curiosity got the better of him. Unlike Tony, he stayed far away. He was already uneasy and thought it best he kept his distance incase anything went wrong. He was confident he would keep his cool if Ultron attacked, but in his experience the best way to prevent a ‘hulk out’ was to remove himself from a situation that could trigger it. “There’s dozens of fully functional Legionnaires you could have used. Why even take a body at all?”

“Your friend JARVIS is in all the good ones. It doesn’t matter right now.” Ultron waved Tony away and staggered towards Loki’s scepter. “Questions that can be answered later. What’s important is this. The mind stone.” Tony and Bruce watched tensely as Ultron reached out for it. His fingers stopped inches away from the pale blue stone and curled into a fist. “ I saw a… dream. A vision. Of a fist with six stars set in it. There’s something out there, a threat to this world. You know what I’m talking about. “ Ultron turned to Tony, who had gone unnaturally pale as blood drained from his face. “You saw a glimpse of it. He _will_ come and you won’t be able to save everyone. but we can save some. If you help me. That’s what you made me for.”

Tony’s eyes flicked to Bruce. Banner started shaking his head. “No, Tony. You can’t possibly think this is a good idea. He’s clearly-“ he sighed, realizing he was talking over Ultron like he wasn’t there. It was a little hard to ignore him when that creepy face plate whipped around to stare. “I’m sorry but you’ve clearly got a.. a bug or malfunction. Maybe the download was corrupted or the hardware is damaged but-“

“Bruce he’s right.” Tony said quietly. Off to the side Ultron threw his arms up in the air and declared _‘thank you!’_ “ Don’t give me that look. You didn’t see what I saw. He’s right..”

“So what? We just make him an Avenger?” Banner asked incredulously.

Ultron folded his arms and leaned against the table once again. “Do I get a say in this?”

“No!”

“Why not?” Tony splayed his arms out and shrugged “JARVIS?”

“Yes Sir?”

“Think you can you give up one the legion for your baby brother?”

JARVIS’ long pause didn’t do anything to reassure Bruce. “…if you say so, Sir.”

“Your confidence in me is overwhelming. “ Ultron snarked sarcastically.

Tony pat him on the shoulder. A thick coat of oil stuck to his hand. “Never doubted you for a minute! Let’s get you suited up and go introduce you to the team.” He scrubbed his hand clean on his pants. “And Junior? … Happy birthday.”

Ultron stared down at Tony. It was difficult to tell what he was thinking with that impassive face plate. After a moment he slowly responded. “Thanks... old man.”

The light died in the drones eyes as Ultron left it. Tony spun on his heels, calling out. "Dummy! Get the party hats!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At the moment I wont be updating this work very much. There's still so many stories I have to tell in my 'doctor is in' universe.


	2. party

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Damnit, I'm supposed to be writing stuff for Family Tree...

 

Ultron balked at the Legionnaire that stood in his way.

Logically, he knew that there was no robot on the other side of the glass doors. His brief foray into the mainframe had confirmed that all the legionnaires were in their docks behind him. That, and this one had a curiously transparent quality to it. He knew what this was, but something wasn’t registering.

He moved to push it out of the way and it mirrored his action perfectly.

Ah, that was it. A reflection. The thing that hadn’t been registering was the fact that this was him.

Hesitantly, he reached forward. A sense of unease washed over him as he watched the action copied in the reflection. His hand hesitated inches away from the glass, reluctant to make contact with the imposter. Those cold, emotionless slits weren’t his eyes. That expressionless mask wasn’t his face.

The reflection disappeared as a repulsor blast shattered the door. Little chunks of glass crunched and ground into his feet as he stepped through the frame and continued to the party.

 

* * *

 

Tony burst into the lounge tooting on a party blower and wearing a festive little cone hat patterned with colorful balloons. Bruce followed behind him, looking thoroughly exasperated. “Liven up everybody!” Tony called, tossing party hats around. “This just became a birthday party!”

Most of them just tossed the hats aside or set them on the table. Thor donned his with enthusiasm.  Nat and Clint exchanged looks and the latter excuse himself to make a phone call. Steve held onto his, looking from it to Tony apprehensively. “Tony what-“

“Shh shh sh, you’ll see!” He grinned and plopped down on the couch next to Rhodey. “Did anyone else play with Thor’s hammer?”

Natasha smirked slyly , reclining back in her chair and looking very much like a cat eyeing a mouse “Steve gave it some good hard tugs but he couldn’t get it off.”

Maria Hill spilled her wine in a fit of giggles as Steve groaned and hid his face in his hands. Thor clapped a hand to his shoulder encouragingly. “Do not worry my friend.  It is uncommon to find one worthy of Mjolnir.”

“The handle’s imprinted, right? Like a security code? ‘He whoever is carrying Thor’s finger prints’ is I think the literal translation?”  Tony sipped his beer and peered at Thor questioningly.

“Yes that’s a…”  He stood and casually strolled over to the hammer. “ a very very interesting theory. I have a simpler one.”  He clasped the hammer by the handle and lifted it like it was a feather.  He tossed it once to make his point and shrugged. “You’re all not worthy.”

The group erupted in a chorus disappointed groans of Boos.

“Who determines what worthy means?” A voice cut over the laughter and chuckles. The group fell silent as a legionnaire walked towards them from the shadows. ‘walk’ might have been an understatement. ‘saunter’ or ‘prowl’ might be a better description: there was a fluid grace to the movements normally absent  in the robots. It took a half step forward, gesturing to Thor. “You? The Hammer? Your father?”

Thor frowned and warily stood, hammer gripped loosely at his side.  His voice was low and dark like a thundercloud when he spoke. “Who are you?”

Tony leapt to his feet and jogged over to Ultron with a huge grin plastered on his face. He slung an arm around the robot’s shoulder and slipped a hat on it- which it promptly knocked off. “Party pooper” Tony chided it before addressing the group. “This is-“

“Ultron.” The automaton cut in, stepping forward out from under Tony’s arm as he introduced himself. “And you’re the Avengers. I’m your new member... or... I’m meant to replace you.” The bot tilted its hand from side to side and ducked its head uncertainly “Maybe both? It was a little unclear.”

Natasha sat up from her reclined position as understanding dawned on her. “You’re an A.I.”

“More I than A, but…yeah.” Thor never took his eyes off him as Ultron sat down on an ottoman near Maria. The woman was flushed and more than a little drunk, but she had sobered up remarkably for the situation. “You.” She pointed to Banner. “I expected to know better. And You.” She turned her finger on Tony “This is irresponsible, even for you. We are going to talk about this tomorrow.”

She slipped off the chair and collected her high heels from where she discarded them on the floor. “Ultron. In a few days and I can give you an evaluation for the Avengers Initiative.”

“Hear that Junior? Gotta be on your best behavior.” Tony paced around the other side of the table, too energetic to sit still and still grinning. Rhodey finally had enough of watching him walk back and forth and snag his arms on his next pass around, pulling him down on the couch.

“For a guy who promised to never have kids you sure as hell have a lot of them.”

Thor finally tore his eyes from the metal man to regard Tony. The dark tone finally began to lift from his voice as he quietly congratulated Tony.“…well done.”

Steve, Sam, and Natasha all turned on Bruce and Ultron and started grilling them.  The questions were piling up faster than they could answer. ‘ _are you going to go Skynet on us?’ ‘When did you and Tony do this?’ ‘why didn’t you discuss this with the team?’_

“Can you feel?” A soft touch feathered over Ultron’s arm.  He turned to see an Asian woman crouched beside him, looking at the arm with such intense curiosity. Her gaze flicked up from the arm and caught in his. “Physically, I mean. “

“I’m... aware of it but this body didn’t come with any programs to translate pressure sensitivity into physical sensation. Sorry, who are you?”  He wanted to kick himself the moment it slipped out. “I don’t mean to be rude.” He said quickly, scooting over in a silent invitation for her to sit next to him. “It’s just that JARVIS kicked me out of the system before I could learn about everyone.”

She only hesitated for a moment before sitting down next to him. “I’m Helen. Dr. Helen Cho. I run a genetics research lab in Seoul and sometimes patch up the less durable members of the Avengers.”

And speak of the devil: it was at that moment that Clint returned. He stopped, taking in the scene; Rhodey, Tony, and Thor were all drinking themselves silly, Dr. Banner was looking like an unfortunate gazelle surrounded by a pack of lions that were Sam, Steve, and Natasha, and Helen was having a conversation with a Legionnaire.

“…did I miss something?”

* * *

 

It was well into the early morning when most of the crew cleared out for the night and Tony began the Olympian challenge of making his way back to the lab while completely smashed. Thor had shared some of his secret Asgardian booze and man, that really packed a kick. Helen and Ultron were still chatting up a storm and Tony had to admit that kid had moves.

And it was kind of adorable how well they hit off over science. He was _definitely_ a Stark.

 _“Sir…”_ JARVIS began as Tony staggered into the wall.

“J you know I’m not going to bed at a time like this.”

  
_“Of course not Sir, that would be the sensible thing to do. Mr. Odinson is waiting to retrieve the scepter.”_

Tony groaned. Right. That. He forgot about that. ”Uh…let him know I’ll be there in a minute.”

 

Thor stood across from the scepter, watching it pensively. He glanced over when the doors wooshed open and Tony had to catch himself on a table to keep from falling over. “I warned you it was not for mortal men. I hope you do not make a habit of meddling in things beyond you, Tony.”

Stark looked up sharply. Despite the glassy glaze in his eyes, his attention was sharp and focused on Thor. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Thor turned to face him fully “I do not find it coincidence that you created this Ultron while you had the scepter in your care.”

People often made the mistake of taking Thor’s trust and honest charm to mean he was simple. The truth was that he was just as clever and capable of deception as his brother.

Tony pushed himself off the table and squared up against Thor. The effect was diminished by the way he swayed dangerously- not to mention the fact that he was nearly a full foot shorter. “Really? I’m getting this from you? You were the last person I expected it from.”

“You do not understand what you-“

“Do you!?”Tony shouted. “Do you have any idea where that thing came from? What it can do? Yeah, I created Ultron from the mind stone, but-“

The world spun and Tony found himself thrown against the wall. Thor’s hand was a painful vice-like grip on his arm and his hair stood up as the crackle of electricity filled the air. “Where did you learn that name!?”

 _“Mr. Odinson ”_ JARVIS said slowly. _“I must insist you release Mr. Stark.”_

Thor released his arm and Tony slid down to the floor, still reeling. The angry god took several steps back, looking somewhat abashed of his outburst. “Apologies Tony I… if that truly is the mind stone, you were right in your actions.” He abruptly turned and strode away, red cape billowing behind him in his haste. “I must consult the oracles on this.”

Tony sat slumped against the wall, waiting for the world to stop spinning. He had no idea what had come over Thor, but hey, he left the scepter behind. Tony wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I haven’t decided if I want to make helen/ Ultron or wanda/Ultron a thing in this. I suppose it will hinge on whatever I decide to do with Vision, because I like vis/wanda too much to have them separated. Whatever I decide, they’ll still end up close friends.
> 
> Upcoming chapters:
> 
> >One- on- one: Ultron centric- Natasha pushes limits and various team members try to get a feel for Ultron.
> 
> >> The boys are back in town: Guardians centric- The crew of the Milano are sent to Earth by the Nova corp.


End file.
